let's go fly a kite

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Thursday, October 27, 2016

Me on the cover of a mock catalogue. Ikea models usually don't look at the camera.

IKEA Canada is celebrating its 40th birthday with a special "Then and Now Exhibit" at the Design Exchange.

The exhibit includes a short history of Ingvar Kamprad story - the entrepreneur who started IKEA in Smaland, Sweden in the 1950s. Some early products of his mail order business are on display, including socks and Christmas cards.

There four "rooms" on display. Below is the dining room, the focus is the pine furniture which was unique to IKEA.

There is a large wall of IKEA catalogue covers from the past 40 years. Below is just half the display.

IKEA came to Canada in the early 70s. Do you remember the Viking and the Moose?

The exhibit also includes a few of the toys from IKEA's line for children.

Sunday, October 23, 2016

This year, both my daughters are in ukulele club and required a case for their ukuleles. I found a very well written pattern on Etsy by SusieDDesigns. This pattern requires several notions - a zipper, fusible fleece, interfacing and four yards of seam binding. The binding was the most time consuming part - I ripped out my stitches several times as it was very difficult to sew on the machine. Next time I will stitch the binding on to the main fabric before assembling the bag and then hand stitch in place. That being said, I am glad I persevered. This was a very useful project. The girls have been using these cases for a couple of weeks now and they work perfectly!

Fabric Above - Grroovy Guitars by Michael Miller

I didn't have enough fusible fleece for the case pictured above, so I used some left over batting and quilted it between the front and lining. This step added to the project time, but worked fine.

Did you follow America's Got Talent over the summer? My girls love Grace. She has inspired so many to take up the ukulele. This year, our school's ukulele club has over 80 students. I am looking forward to their first performance.

Saturday, May 14, 2016

Over Mother's Day weekend, the girls and I visited my sister in San Francisco. I packed my Dottie Angel Frock so that my sister could take a few photos. The pattern is Simplicity 1080A. For the pockets, I used a linen table cloth my mother embroidered over 30 years ago. The pattern is Lotte Figgio. I also used linen and Sunshine & Shadow (Jack in a Pulpit) by Jane Sassaman for FreeSpirit/Westminister.

Lotte is a Norwegian china from my childhood and I have always loved blue and white.

I love visiting California. I take so many photos of plants. On this visit, the foxgloves were in abundance.

I finished the interior seams with bias tape and the side seams with a serger (the pattern calls for French seams).